Of Polymer and Paint

August 25, 2019

Have you ever used paint on polymer? If so, why did you chose to paint it rather than use the inherent color? This question is at the heart of a kind of prejudice against paint that used to be rather prevalent in the polymer community. I think painting on polymer has found its place in our repertoire of techniques but statistically (and I’m just looking at the stats I have available from the blog and the general response to articles) I don’t think it gets quite the regard that other techniques do and it makes me wonder if people still steer away from it, even when it might be the best choice.

Ages ago, I unintentionally incited a heated conversation about painting on polymer through a blog post where all the color and the focal point of the piece was painted. There were many comments about how painting on polymer was not “working in polymer” and therefore I should not be writing about it on a polymer blog. This sentiment was rooted in the thought that since polymer is already colored, painting would be superfluous if not downright heretical. This was also a time when polymer was fighting for its place in the art world and competitions for polymer were being won by pieces that were not wholly polymer which heavily irritated those who strove to create only with polymer clay. With a strong love for the material, those crafters were simply strong proponents of letting the material shine through.

Well, a material can be gorgeous on its own, but what the artist wants out of that material may be other qualities beyond its inherent visual ones. For instance, I prefer woodwork that has been treated with nothing but oil and wax to let the natural beauty shine through but wood that is stained or painted can result in beautiful work as well. It’s not wrong to change or obscure the wood’s natural look. It’s just different. Polymer has other qualities beyond it’s color, primarily its sculptural characteristics including the ability to hold very fine detail. So, if its sculptural qualities are primarily what the artist needs from the material, then why not use whatever kind of treatment gives the surface the color and feel the artist finds most appealing or fitting for the work?

The fact is, the color in polymer clay only pieces tends to be fairly uniform since we are working with a material which is colored throughout making it fairly difficult to achieve an organic variation and imperfect diffusion of color. On the other hand, paint which is applied in layers can so readily be everything from dense and uniform to translucent and feathery to gritty and splattered. The facts are that it is easy to get smooth, uniform color using polymer clay but can be tricky with paint and it is easy to get variation in a field of color with paint but takes more work than it is often worth to get a similar effect in clay. In other words, each material has its strengths and so why not employ them based on those strengths?

As an artist, one should use the material that suits the end result desired if the material and the skills to use them are available to them. We’re not talking just paint here either—this applies to any material. Sometimes real metal, with its strength and shine, will work better than faux polymer metal or real stones will glimmer and give a piece the needed weight that faux polymer stones cannot. I am not saying that the real thing should always be used though. Faux materials in polymer do have distinct advantages such as faux metal being lighter and more flexible than the real thing and faux stones are usually cheaper to produce and can be formed in ways that real stones cannot.

Ideally, you start designing a piece with the idea of what you want to make, then figure out what materials would be best suited to the look, construction, durability, and cost of the work as well as your skillset and interests. With this approach, you can make the best work possible rather than limiting yourself because you feel some sense of loyalty to a single medium or the tribe of artists that identify themselves by that medium. That loyalty, like not painting color onto polymer, can be unnecessarily limiting and you could be missing out on wonderful new ways to express yourself and create.

The fact is you and your work do not need to be defined by your primary medium. You are an artist or a crafter or an artisan. You can choose to tack a medium on to one of these basic labels in order to be identified by a related community or as a way to explain very succinctly what you do, but if one day you get up and decide you want to try working with something else, are you going to feel locked into that label? Because if you do, you may be less inclined to explore and that would be sad. As I see it, every true artist is an explorer and one that should not be limited by any one material if their path of exploration leads them elsewhere. That’s just my humble opinion!

So, if you think paint would look good on your polymer, I think you should go for it. Let’s look at a handful of artists who combine paint and polymer in ways that polymer alone would not readily be able to create.

 

Color on Color

If you are a fan of Doreen Kassel’s work, you’re probably in love with either her whimsy or her exuberant color. But did you know, she only works with white clay? Or at least this is what she told me a few years back. Polymer is a sculptural medium for her. Its potential color possibilities do not come into play. Instead, she paints her polymer work primarily with oil paints. The wash and translucency of the oil paint layers gives a unique depth and glow to the colors that you just wouldn’t get with polymer alone. Her use of white as the base, like oil on canvas, does much to brighten the colors as well.

 

 

Miniature polymer creation is another area where paint seems to be indispensable. Now, I am no expert in this area but after working with and publishing articles and projects with Stephanie Kilgast, I have learned just how important paint can be for creating lifelike miniature objects. The clay does provide a large amount of the color in Stephanie’s work but painting is what punches up the realism and her amazing sculptures. Highlighting and antiquing play a major role in the realistic look of pieces like this fungi and coral inspired piece.

By the way, if you’re wondering why Stephanie sculpted this on a tin can, it is because she is very active in promoting environmental awareness and uses discarded objects to celebrate “the beauty of nature in a dialogue with humanity, questioning the lost balance between human activities and nature”. If you like what she’s doing you should consider supporting her on Patreon, a platform for supporting artists you admire with a monthly donation of just a couple dollars. You are then given access to privileged information and insight on the artist and his or her work as well as, sometimes, demonstrations and tutorials. Check Stephanie’s page on Patreon here then check out the service in general. There are some really cool artists sharing some really exclusive stuff on this platform.

 

Lorraine Vogel applies paint to the surface of textured polymer clay using stencils. Polymer clay allows her to create textures that gives the paint variation and dimension, an approach that softens the sharp edge and graphic effect that stencil painting often has.

By the way, you can learn the technique in the above pendant from Lorraine’s tutorial in The Polymer Arts’ Winter 2016 issue, available in digital or print on our website of course. Or you can go to her Etsy shop and purchase one of her comprehensive digital tutorials.

 

And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that in the last issue of The Polymer Studio, Debbie Crothers shows the possibilities of acrylic paint and polymer in a very comprehensive, exploratory article with numerous short tutorials to get you exploring as well. Acrylic pours on polymer is the technique on the beads that grace the cover. The resulting mix of color and its visual texture is just flat out yummy.

 

Although I am talking paint here, the idea that other materials can and should be used on polymer where they can add or express your ideas best extends to all colorants including alcohol inks, pastels, mica powders, iron oxides, or glazes. Most of these other colorants have been better accepted in polymer work, probably because they change the clay color but don’t obscure it the way paint can. But even in traditional paintings, the type of substrate the artist uses to paint on greatly effects the feel and look of the work. Polymer can be a wonderful substrate, especially since its sculptural properties allow for such a great interaction with the paint and such creative potential for the form of the piece.

So, if you’ve been curious about the various effects you can get with paint on polymer or have wondered if you can combine some other material interest such as fiber, metal, paper or whatever, try it! Mess around and explore. Search online to see what others might be doing with these combinations and let their ideas motivate you to try stretch your skills and creative interests.

So, what new material will you be trying out this week or in the very near future?

The Sage Chronicles

My so-called break has yet to feel like a break, I have to admit. There have been some family matters and siblings who need my support and getting the house back together (and getting rid of all this dust!) is slow going as I try to take it easy with the one gimpy arm. So, I still have a full schedule between that, the family stuff, my physical therapy, and my efforts to come up with a plan for returning to production without getting in this state again. You know, some day, I just want to know what it’s like to be bored. Yeah … that’s not likely to happen any time soon.

For those following the saga of the broken drain turned into a major renovation, here’s a photo of the kitchen after I laid in the first line of slate on the backsplash last week so we could at least make the kitchen fully functional and I could get to cooking properly again! I can’t wait until I actually get to start putting in the design on the backsplash. I’ve never done a mosaic project this big but I am excited and so glad I am giving myself the break just now so I can enjoy the process and not rush it. Or not take 6 months or more to complete it!

So, I’m off to rest up now. I hope you have had a great, creative, and inspiring weekend. Here’s to a creative and inspiring week as well!

 

 

The Story Within

July 14, 2019

What is it about faux damaged and worn surfaces that we like so much? I mean, it’s everywhere – crackle, antiquing, weathering, patina, torn edges, scratching, distressing – these are all widely used surface techniques in art and in all kinds of decor. But have you ever asked yourself why we are drawn to things that are breaking down and degrading?

Let me say right out the gate, I absolutely adore this kind of surface treatment so don’t stop reading because you think I’m going to try to dissuade anyone from using it. But I do think it’s interesting that artists of all kinds are interested in it and wondered if you ever considered why people, in general, are so attracted to it.

I’ll give you the answer in one simple word – story. Things that are worn, show signs of use, and show the passage of time, have a story, history, a connection leading into the past lives and worlds of other people and places, or are a connection to our own past. Human beings love story. Civilizations of all kinds, and through all time, have told stories or sung songs to keep a culture, event, or person alive in the community or society. Communities everywhere collect evidence of the past – both their own and of others – and engage in the exchange of stories through nearly everything that we do and attend to including banter and gossip, entertainment, all our print and spoken communication sources , and all kinds of visual forms including, and maybe most especially, art. So, it’s no wonder artists love to recreate that innate sense of story by creating the look of aging, wear, breakage and weathering.

Now, you may think you simply like the look and any attraction you have to aged looks has nothing to do with the potential history something might have had or the stories that you could make up, consciously or unconsciously. The thing is, whether it is faux or real aging, we will always associate the look of something worn and weathered with the past and the past means history and history is, well, hi-story. It’s never just what we see that draws us. It’s what we associate with it, what our experiences tell us and our emotions evoke.

If these looks were just about the visuals, more people would be drawing inspiration from gory and grimy imagery alongside the pretty, intriguing, and more benign sources. (There are definitely people who draw texture from gore and grime but they’re not usually doing it to create something with a comfortable, aesthetic beauty.) So yes, the worn and weathered textures are beautiful, but it is psychologically attractive because it represents the passage of time and it’s interaction with the world and us.

Understanding that it is story and not just the beauty of these aged and distressed textures can take your work and designs into a more complex and rich realm because, instead of just thinking “This is a pretty texture, I want to make something with it,” you can start asking yourself, “What is the story behind this texture and why do I want to put it on this piece?” Or conversely, “Why do I want to make that texture into a piece of art?”

This is not to say that you have to write up an actual story or history for the piece that you’re making. I think just being aware that what you’re putting forth does represent a history will help guide you in your choices. After all, the viewer of your work isn’t necessarily going to know what story you associate with it but they will insert their own story, or an emotion associated with a story that the textures elicit, and the whole of the design should support the idea of its history or use.

Let’s look at some work with some of our favorite worn and weathered textures, and not just polymer either – I think we need to branch out a bit, especially in this subject matter, to see just how ubiquitous this type of texture is in art.

 

All a Story is Cracked Up to Be

Let’s start with an example from an artist who is obviously all about the story in her artwork. Christine Damm’s website and shop name is, after all, “Stories They Tell”. All her work looks weathered or worn, maybe a bit beaten and dinged, but she’s coaxed a persevering beauty out of these rough, color strewn treatments with consistent intention. This piece of Christine’s includes parts of an old vintage hand beater whose actual history of use, neglect, and, now, adoration, is echoed in the polymer clay and combined in a tribal-esque design.

This piece was actually the opening beauty shot for Christine’s article, “Found Fusion: Designing with Polymer & Found Objects”, in the Spring 2016 issue of The Polymer Arts. It’s a fantastic article that will really get you thinking about how enriching found objects can be when added to your work. We still have copies of that issue in print on our website here and you can read more about Christine’s and her process on her website here.

 

Nadezhda Plotnikova’s “Sunny necklace”, below, is aptly named. Although the surface of the focal beads is quite crackled and the other beads have a rough, weathered look, the necklace is anything but worn out looking. The bright and light colors convey that “sunny” emotion while the surface treatments give it a relaxed and comfortable feel. It’s that same kind of feeling you get from your favorite well-worn comfy jeans (and don’t those jeans have stories!), only with a bit more pizzazz. It seems like the individual beads here would have the stories, though, and the necklace would be a recent gathering of them. Like maybe it could be a collection of old sun-bleached coral washed up on a distant island combined with wave-worn, fantastical rocks, all found and brought together by some seafaring adventurer. Or something like that. What story do you come up with when looking at this?

 

Like Nadezhda’s above, Tamara of Block Party Press has chosen a light theme for a necklace of visually distressed beads. Her’s however, comes in the form of stylized daisies but the color and treatment is on the dark and heavy side, with its worn-out whites over a dark brown base. It’s a kind of a subdued approach to what we have above, being much less dramatic. I also feel like it’s the kind of thing you might have found in the back of your mother’s jewelry drawer, forgotten and dusty, and just exuding nostalgia. It absolutely begs for a story to be wound around it. It’s the kind of piece that I think would feel instantly a part of your personal history even when new.

 

Some artwork does not just imply story but is actually created from a story. Our featured artist in the #3 issue of The Polymer Studio is an avid researcher and history lover from Brazil quite inspired by interpreting story. Beatriz Cominatto created the pieces you see in the opening of this post and the one below as part of a series inspired by the native work of the Marajoara people. She researched the history of Brazil’s Marajo Island and the archaeological finds there extensively before starting the series and then developed this into quite the elaborate art installation, complete with simulated archaeological work. These pieces imply story even when you even to those uninformed about Beatriz’s inspiration, due to the consistently applied signs of age and the tribal design.

You can see and read more about this Beatriz’s work, in the next issue as she is our featured interview. She has had the most amazing artistic journey! She’s had a lot of hurdles to jump being so isolated, primarily language-wise, in Brazil, from the rest of the polymer community and yet she grew polymer as an art form there almost single-handedly, even helping to develop Brazil’s own line of polymer clay. You gotta read this article! You can also find out more about her Marajoara series on her feature page in Polymer Journeys 2019.

 

When I think about cracked and torn pieces in art jewelry, I always think about the metalsmiths. There’s something about taking a jeweler’s saw and developing cracked layers, revealing the jewels or textured surfaces beneath. Both the metalsmiths and admiring collectors seem to be quite drawn to it as the treatment is not at all uncommon. Lexi Erickson’s penchant for this kind of treatment is often paired with pitted and worn metal as in this pendant below.

It almost feels like Lexi’s piece was torn from some old piece of machinery which could lead you to wonder where and what that machine was and maybe what the machine’s purpose was and whether its maker ever imagined it would become a piece of jewelry. No, I’m not saying that’s what she did but that’s the kind of story, or at least e a sense of story, this type of work can invoke, all because of the thoroughness in her treatment of that one layer.

 

And what about this amazing conglomeration of worn, cracked, scratched and yet intensely beautiful surface treatments on this ceramic vessel below? Lesley McInally’s work is often reminiscent of an old doorframe much in need of painting or the corner of a crumbling old house where the plaster and frame have started to show. And that red dot … so simple and yet it adds so much energy and drama. I don’t think it’s supposed to be blood, but it could represent something of that sort. It really depends on where your mind wants to go with the possible stories buried here.

 

Creating Your Own Story

So, I want to give you a little, fun challenge today. Go take a look at some of your more elaborate pieces or, if you don’t have anything of your making at hand, look up some of your favorite pieces by other artists. What is the story, for you, in each piece that you look at? Tell yourself as much or as little of the story as comes to you in the first minute or less. Do this with at least 3 pieces, maybe 5. You may discover, during this process, a story in a piece that was only unconsciously there, but once you ask yourself about its possible history, it may become quite obvious. How exciting is that? Or do all of your pieces already come with a fully realized story?

Some artists do work that way, creating full-fledged stories for all their work, although I think it’s more predominant with people who create figures, animals, or creatures of some sort. I learned to do this with my art jewelry, mostly because, when I was selling, I made sure each piece had a title because that really helps to get potential customers thinking about its story and since they write the story, they tend to find a connection to the work, making it much more likely that they would buy the piece. I have a whole article about naming your pieces and the advantages of this in the Fall 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts if you want to read more about that.

 

My Own Story

First of all, I want to thank all of you who wrote me little personal notes about my physical well-being. You’re also sweet! Mind you, it’s nothing serious but chronic tendinitis does make it very hard to work, I have to say. But I have my workarounds. And for those who wrote me about the earthquakes… I grew up with them and although they are scary in the moment, us native Californians just take it in stride. There were no major injuries from these quakes as it was centered in a fairly unpopulated area and deep in the earth. We were rolling around quite a bit here but nothing even fell over, which was a miracle considering the state of our house.

As for this house renovation, we are supposedly really close to being done but it still looks like a wreck and everything is covered in a layer of white dust from all the plastering. It feels like it’s going to be months after they finish before the house is back to normal, just because of all the house cleaning we get to look forward to and all the organizing. It’s going to be like moving into a new place! Well, it is mostly a new place now, actually. Which is cool! But a lot of work.

The good news is that we do have nearly one whole bathroom done, which is really nice, to say the least. We’re doing the painting on it to save us some bucks while the crew works on the kitchen and tiling the other bathroom. I’m training the family on painting and other home improvement stuff. It’s become quite the family project which is pretty nice. We get to spend paint-spattered time with the teen before she goes off to college in a couple of months!

 

As for work here at Tenth Muse headquarters, I’m still working on polishing the next issue of The Polymer Studio which is going slower than I’d like because of the tendinitis but I’m going to keep at it. I hope to have the actual publication date next week so stay tuned!

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and have a little time to go and find some of the stories in your work–you’ll love doing that! I promise. Have a great week!

Bevy of Blues

July 27, 2017

In my search for popular blues, this person’s work that you see here kept popping up, only it seemed to be attached to different people all the time. As it turns out, this is an artist that sticks with making amazing beads and elements that bead artisans can then assemble rather than creating a lot of finished work herself.

Helen Backhouse is her name and her beads and elements can be found scattered throughout Etsy and on various Facebook pages. Her pieces look to be impressed clay colored primarily with mica powders and, I’d guess, some kind of patina and weathered effect techniques, perhaps dyes or paints. Her blues are straight from the back yard, reflecting the brilliant blues found in a butterfly’s or bird’s wing as well as the dusty teals and blues leaning into greens that appear in natural metal patinas. The shapes are simple, the textures organic, and the coloring coolly dramatic. That makes for really eye-catching elements.

The best place to check out her pieces is on her Facebook page where the designers that use her pieces tag her in their photos alongside the stuff she does post.

 

Weekly Inspiration Challenge: Explore your favorite color. Spend just a couple of minutes writing down what you like about this color, what it reminds you of, and where you notice it most often. Look back at what you wrote and see what kind of work, forms, textures or other ideas these thoughts bring up and let those guide you in the creation of new pieces.

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Of Polymer and Paint

August 25, 2019
Posted in

Have you ever used paint on polymer? If so, why did you chose to paint it rather than use the inherent color? This question is at the heart of a kind of prejudice against paint that used to be rather prevalent in the polymer community. I think painting on polymer has found its place in our repertoire of techniques but statistically (and I’m just looking at the stats I have available from the blog and the general response to articles) I don’t think it gets quite the regard that other techniques do and it makes me wonder if people still steer away from it, even when it might be the best choice.

Ages ago, I unintentionally incited a heated conversation about painting on polymer through a blog post where all the color and the focal point of the piece was painted. There were many comments about how painting on polymer was not “working in polymer” and therefore I should not be writing about it on a polymer blog. This sentiment was rooted in the thought that since polymer is already colored, painting would be superfluous if not downright heretical. This was also a time when polymer was fighting for its place in the art world and competitions for polymer were being won by pieces that were not wholly polymer which heavily irritated those who strove to create only with polymer clay. With a strong love for the material, those crafters were simply strong proponents of letting the material shine through.

Well, a material can be gorgeous on its own, but what the artist wants out of that material may be other qualities beyond its inherent visual ones. For instance, I prefer woodwork that has been treated with nothing but oil and wax to let the natural beauty shine through but wood that is stained or painted can result in beautiful work as well. It’s not wrong to change or obscure the wood’s natural look. It’s just different. Polymer has other qualities beyond it’s color, primarily its sculptural characteristics including the ability to hold very fine detail. So, if its sculptural qualities are primarily what the artist needs from the material, then why not use whatever kind of treatment gives the surface the color and feel the artist finds most appealing or fitting for the work?

The fact is, the color in polymer clay only pieces tends to be fairly uniform since we are working with a material which is colored throughout making it fairly difficult to achieve an organic variation and imperfect diffusion of color. On the other hand, paint which is applied in layers can so readily be everything from dense and uniform to translucent and feathery to gritty and splattered. The facts are that it is easy to get smooth, uniform color using polymer clay but can be tricky with paint and it is easy to get variation in a field of color with paint but takes more work than it is often worth to get a similar effect in clay. In other words, each material has its strengths and so why not employ them based on those strengths?

As an artist, one should use the material that suits the end result desired if the material and the skills to use them are available to them. We’re not talking just paint here either—this applies to any material. Sometimes real metal, with its strength and shine, will work better than faux polymer metal or real stones will glimmer and give a piece the needed weight that faux polymer stones cannot. I am not saying that the real thing should always be used though. Faux materials in polymer do have distinct advantages such as faux metal being lighter and more flexible than the real thing and faux stones are usually cheaper to produce and can be formed in ways that real stones cannot.

Ideally, you start designing a piece with the idea of what you want to make, then figure out what materials would be best suited to the look, construction, durability, and cost of the work as well as your skillset and interests. With this approach, you can make the best work possible rather than limiting yourself because you feel some sense of loyalty to a single medium or the tribe of artists that identify themselves by that medium. That loyalty, like not painting color onto polymer, can be unnecessarily limiting and you could be missing out on wonderful new ways to express yourself and create.

The fact is you and your work do not need to be defined by your primary medium. You are an artist or a crafter or an artisan. You can choose to tack a medium on to one of these basic labels in order to be identified by a related community or as a way to explain very succinctly what you do, but if one day you get up and decide you want to try working with something else, are you going to feel locked into that label? Because if you do, you may be less inclined to explore and that would be sad. As I see it, every true artist is an explorer and one that should not be limited by any one material if their path of exploration leads them elsewhere. That’s just my humble opinion!

So, if you think paint would look good on your polymer, I think you should go for it. Let’s look at a handful of artists who combine paint and polymer in ways that polymer alone would not readily be able to create.

 

Color on Color

If you are a fan of Doreen Kassel’s work, you’re probably in love with either her whimsy or her exuberant color. But did you know, she only works with white clay? Or at least this is what she told me a few years back. Polymer is a sculptural medium for her. Its potential color possibilities do not come into play. Instead, she paints her polymer work primarily with oil paints. The wash and translucency of the oil paint layers gives a unique depth and glow to the colors that you just wouldn’t get with polymer alone. Her use of white as the base, like oil on canvas, does much to brighten the colors as well.

 

 

Miniature polymer creation is another area where paint seems to be indispensable. Now, I am no expert in this area but after working with and publishing articles and projects with Stephanie Kilgast, I have learned just how important paint can be for creating lifelike miniature objects. The clay does provide a large amount of the color in Stephanie’s work but painting is what punches up the realism and her amazing sculptures. Highlighting and antiquing play a major role in the realistic look of pieces like this fungi and coral inspired piece.

By the way, if you’re wondering why Stephanie sculpted this on a tin can, it is because she is very active in promoting environmental awareness and uses discarded objects to celebrate “the beauty of nature in a dialogue with humanity, questioning the lost balance between human activities and nature”. If you like what she’s doing you should consider supporting her on Patreon, a platform for supporting artists you admire with a monthly donation of just a couple dollars. You are then given access to privileged information and insight on the artist and his or her work as well as, sometimes, demonstrations and tutorials. Check Stephanie’s page on Patreon here then check out the service in general. There are some really cool artists sharing some really exclusive stuff on this platform.

 

Lorraine Vogel applies paint to the surface of textured polymer clay using stencils. Polymer clay allows her to create textures that gives the paint variation and dimension, an approach that softens the sharp edge and graphic effect that stencil painting often has.

By the way, you can learn the technique in the above pendant from Lorraine’s tutorial in The Polymer Arts’ Winter 2016 issue, available in digital or print on our website of course. Or you can go to her Etsy shop and purchase one of her comprehensive digital tutorials.

 

And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that in the last issue of The Polymer Studio, Debbie Crothers shows the possibilities of acrylic paint and polymer in a very comprehensive, exploratory article with numerous short tutorials to get you exploring as well. Acrylic pours on polymer is the technique on the beads that grace the cover. The resulting mix of color and its visual texture is just flat out yummy.

 

Although I am talking paint here, the idea that other materials can and should be used on polymer where they can add or express your ideas best extends to all colorants including alcohol inks, pastels, mica powders, iron oxides, or glazes. Most of these other colorants have been better accepted in polymer work, probably because they change the clay color but don’t obscure it the way paint can. But even in traditional paintings, the type of substrate the artist uses to paint on greatly effects the feel and look of the work. Polymer can be a wonderful substrate, especially since its sculptural properties allow for such a great interaction with the paint and such creative potential for the form of the piece.

So, if you’ve been curious about the various effects you can get with paint on polymer or have wondered if you can combine some other material interest such as fiber, metal, paper or whatever, try it! Mess around and explore. Search online to see what others might be doing with these combinations and let their ideas motivate you to try stretch your skills and creative interests.

So, what new material will you be trying out this week or in the very near future?

The Sage Chronicles

My so-called break has yet to feel like a break, I have to admit. There have been some family matters and siblings who need my support and getting the house back together (and getting rid of all this dust!) is slow going as I try to take it easy with the one gimpy arm. So, I still have a full schedule between that, the family stuff, my physical therapy, and my efforts to come up with a plan for returning to production without getting in this state again. You know, some day, I just want to know what it’s like to be bored. Yeah … that’s not likely to happen any time soon.

For those following the saga of the broken drain turned into a major renovation, here’s a photo of the kitchen after I laid in the first line of slate on the backsplash last week so we could at least make the kitchen fully functional and I could get to cooking properly again! I can’t wait until I actually get to start putting in the design on the backsplash. I’ve never done a mosaic project this big but I am excited and so glad I am giving myself the break just now so I can enjoy the process and not rush it. Or not take 6 months or more to complete it!

So, I’m off to rest up now. I hope you have had a great, creative, and inspiring weekend. Here’s to a creative and inspiring week as well!

 

 

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The Story Within

July 14, 2019
Posted in

What is it about faux damaged and worn surfaces that we like so much? I mean, it’s everywhere – crackle, antiquing, weathering, patina, torn edges, scratching, distressing – these are all widely used surface techniques in art and in all kinds of decor. But have you ever asked yourself why we are drawn to things that are breaking down and degrading?

Let me say right out the gate, I absolutely adore this kind of surface treatment so don’t stop reading because you think I’m going to try to dissuade anyone from using it. But I do think it’s interesting that artists of all kinds are interested in it and wondered if you ever considered why people, in general, are so attracted to it.

I’ll give you the answer in one simple word – story. Things that are worn, show signs of use, and show the passage of time, have a story, history, a connection leading into the past lives and worlds of other people and places, or are a connection to our own past. Human beings love story. Civilizations of all kinds, and through all time, have told stories or sung songs to keep a culture, event, or person alive in the community or society. Communities everywhere collect evidence of the past – both their own and of others – and engage in the exchange of stories through nearly everything that we do and attend to including banter and gossip, entertainment, all our print and spoken communication sources , and all kinds of visual forms including, and maybe most especially, art. So, it’s no wonder artists love to recreate that innate sense of story by creating the look of aging, wear, breakage and weathering.

Now, you may think you simply like the look and any attraction you have to aged looks has nothing to do with the potential history something might have had or the stories that you could make up, consciously or unconsciously. The thing is, whether it is faux or real aging, we will always associate the look of something worn and weathered with the past and the past means history and history is, well, hi-story. It’s never just what we see that draws us. It’s what we associate with it, what our experiences tell us and our emotions evoke.

If these looks were just about the visuals, more people would be drawing inspiration from gory and grimy imagery alongside the pretty, intriguing, and more benign sources. (There are definitely people who draw texture from gore and grime but they’re not usually doing it to create something with a comfortable, aesthetic beauty.) So yes, the worn and weathered textures are beautiful, but it is psychologically attractive because it represents the passage of time and it’s interaction with the world and us.

Understanding that it is story and not just the beauty of these aged and distressed textures can take your work and designs into a more complex and rich realm because, instead of just thinking “This is a pretty texture, I want to make something with it,” you can start asking yourself, “What is the story behind this texture and why do I want to put it on this piece?” Or conversely, “Why do I want to make that texture into a piece of art?”

This is not to say that you have to write up an actual story or history for the piece that you’re making. I think just being aware that what you’re putting forth does represent a history will help guide you in your choices. After all, the viewer of your work isn’t necessarily going to know what story you associate with it but they will insert their own story, or an emotion associated with a story that the textures elicit, and the whole of the design should support the idea of its history or use.

Let’s look at some work with some of our favorite worn and weathered textures, and not just polymer either – I think we need to branch out a bit, especially in this subject matter, to see just how ubiquitous this type of texture is in art.

 

All a Story is Cracked Up to Be

Let’s start with an example from an artist who is obviously all about the story in her artwork. Christine Damm’s website and shop name is, after all, “Stories They Tell”. All her work looks weathered or worn, maybe a bit beaten and dinged, but she’s coaxed a persevering beauty out of these rough, color strewn treatments with consistent intention. This piece of Christine’s includes parts of an old vintage hand beater whose actual history of use, neglect, and, now, adoration, is echoed in the polymer clay and combined in a tribal-esque design.

This piece was actually the opening beauty shot for Christine’s article, “Found Fusion: Designing with Polymer & Found Objects”, in the Spring 2016 issue of The Polymer Arts. It’s a fantastic article that will really get you thinking about how enriching found objects can be when added to your work. We still have copies of that issue in print on our website here and you can read more about Christine’s and her process on her website here.

 

Nadezhda Plotnikova’s “Sunny necklace”, below, is aptly named. Although the surface of the focal beads is quite crackled and the other beads have a rough, weathered look, the necklace is anything but worn out looking. The bright and light colors convey that “sunny” emotion while the surface treatments give it a relaxed and comfortable feel. It’s that same kind of feeling you get from your favorite well-worn comfy jeans (and don’t those jeans have stories!), only with a bit more pizzazz. It seems like the individual beads here would have the stories, though, and the necklace would be a recent gathering of them. Like maybe it could be a collection of old sun-bleached coral washed up on a distant island combined with wave-worn, fantastical rocks, all found and brought together by some seafaring adventurer. Or something like that. What story do you come up with when looking at this?

 

Like Nadezhda’s above, Tamara of Block Party Press has chosen a light theme for a necklace of visually distressed beads. Her’s however, comes in the form of stylized daisies but the color and treatment is on the dark and heavy side, with its worn-out whites over a dark brown base. It’s a kind of a subdued approach to what we have above, being much less dramatic. I also feel like it’s the kind of thing you might have found in the back of your mother’s jewelry drawer, forgotten and dusty, and just exuding nostalgia. It absolutely begs for a story to be wound around it. It’s the kind of piece that I think would feel instantly a part of your personal history even when new.

 

Some artwork does not just imply story but is actually created from a story. Our featured artist in the #3 issue of The Polymer Studio is an avid researcher and history lover from Brazil quite inspired by interpreting story. Beatriz Cominatto created the pieces you see in the opening of this post and the one below as part of a series inspired by the native work of the Marajoara people. She researched the history of Brazil’s Marajo Island and the archaeological finds there extensively before starting the series and then developed this into quite the elaborate art installation, complete with simulated archaeological work. These pieces imply story even when you even to those uninformed about Beatriz’s inspiration, due to the consistently applied signs of age and the tribal design.

You can see and read more about this Beatriz’s work, in the next issue as she is our featured interview. She has had the most amazing artistic journey! She’s had a lot of hurdles to jump being so isolated, primarily language-wise, in Brazil, from the rest of the polymer community and yet she grew polymer as an art form there almost single-handedly, even helping to develop Brazil’s own line of polymer clay. You gotta read this article! You can also find out more about her Marajoara series on her feature page in Polymer Journeys 2019.

 

When I think about cracked and torn pieces in art jewelry, I always think about the metalsmiths. There’s something about taking a jeweler’s saw and developing cracked layers, revealing the jewels or textured surfaces beneath. Both the metalsmiths and admiring collectors seem to be quite drawn to it as the treatment is not at all uncommon. Lexi Erickson’s penchant for this kind of treatment is often paired with pitted and worn metal as in this pendant below.

It almost feels like Lexi’s piece was torn from some old piece of machinery which could lead you to wonder where and what that machine was and maybe what the machine’s purpose was and whether its maker ever imagined it would become a piece of jewelry. No, I’m not saying that’s what she did but that’s the kind of story, or at least e a sense of story, this type of work can invoke, all because of the thoroughness in her treatment of that one layer.

 

And what about this amazing conglomeration of worn, cracked, scratched and yet intensely beautiful surface treatments on this ceramic vessel below? Lesley McInally’s work is often reminiscent of an old doorframe much in need of painting or the corner of a crumbling old house where the plaster and frame have started to show. And that red dot … so simple and yet it adds so much energy and drama. I don’t think it’s supposed to be blood, but it could represent something of that sort. It really depends on where your mind wants to go with the possible stories buried here.

 

Creating Your Own Story

So, I want to give you a little, fun challenge today. Go take a look at some of your more elaborate pieces or, if you don’t have anything of your making at hand, look up some of your favorite pieces by other artists. What is the story, for you, in each piece that you look at? Tell yourself as much or as little of the story as comes to you in the first minute or less. Do this with at least 3 pieces, maybe 5. You may discover, during this process, a story in a piece that was only unconsciously there, but once you ask yourself about its possible history, it may become quite obvious. How exciting is that? Or do all of your pieces already come with a fully realized story?

Some artists do work that way, creating full-fledged stories for all their work, although I think it’s more predominant with people who create figures, animals, or creatures of some sort. I learned to do this with my art jewelry, mostly because, when I was selling, I made sure each piece had a title because that really helps to get potential customers thinking about its story and since they write the story, they tend to find a connection to the work, making it much more likely that they would buy the piece. I have a whole article about naming your pieces and the advantages of this in the Fall 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts if you want to read more about that.

 

My Own Story

First of all, I want to thank all of you who wrote me little personal notes about my physical well-being. You’re also sweet! Mind you, it’s nothing serious but chronic tendinitis does make it very hard to work, I have to say. But I have my workarounds. And for those who wrote me about the earthquakes… I grew up with them and although they are scary in the moment, us native Californians just take it in stride. There were no major injuries from these quakes as it was centered in a fairly unpopulated area and deep in the earth. We were rolling around quite a bit here but nothing even fell over, which was a miracle considering the state of our house.

As for this house renovation, we are supposedly really close to being done but it still looks like a wreck and everything is covered in a layer of white dust from all the plastering. It feels like it’s going to be months after they finish before the house is back to normal, just because of all the house cleaning we get to look forward to and all the organizing. It’s going to be like moving into a new place! Well, it is mostly a new place now, actually. Which is cool! But a lot of work.

The good news is that we do have nearly one whole bathroom done, which is really nice, to say the least. We’re doing the painting on it to save us some bucks while the crew works on the kitchen and tiling the other bathroom. I’m training the family on painting and other home improvement stuff. It’s become quite the family project which is pretty nice. We get to spend paint-spattered time with the teen before she goes off to college in a couple of months!

 

As for work here at Tenth Muse headquarters, I’m still working on polishing the next issue of The Polymer Studio which is going slower than I’d like because of the tendinitis but I’m going to keep at it. I hope to have the actual publication date next week so stay tuned!

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and have a little time to go and find some of the stories in your work–you’ll love doing that! I promise. Have a great week!

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Bevy of Blues

July 27, 2017
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In my search for popular blues, this person’s work that you see here kept popping up, only it seemed to be attached to different people all the time. As it turns out, this is an artist that sticks with making amazing beads and elements that bead artisans can then assemble rather than creating a lot of finished work herself.

Helen Backhouse is her name and her beads and elements can be found scattered throughout Etsy and on various Facebook pages. Her pieces look to be impressed clay colored primarily with mica powders and, I’d guess, some kind of patina and weathered effect techniques, perhaps dyes or paints. Her blues are straight from the back yard, reflecting the brilliant blues found in a butterfly’s or bird’s wing as well as the dusty teals and blues leaning into greens that appear in natural metal patinas. The shapes are simple, the textures organic, and the coloring coolly dramatic. That makes for really eye-catching elements.

The best place to check out her pieces is on her Facebook page where the designers that use her pieces tag her in their photos alongside the stuff she does post.

 

Weekly Inspiration Challenge: Explore your favorite color. Spend just a couple of minutes writing down what you like about this color, what it reminds you of, and where you notice it most often. Look back at what you wrote and see what kind of work, forms, textures or other ideas these thoughts bring up and let those guide you in the creation of new pieces.

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